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Why Did the English Civil War Begin and Who Was Responsible for It? Essay Example

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Why Did the English Civil War Begin and Who Was Responsible for It? Essay Example
Why did the English Civil War begin and who was responsible for it?

This essay will discuss a balanced argument on how the English Civil War began and who was responsible for it. The war was between King Charles I and Parliament. The winners in the end were Parliament on the 3rd of September 1651, when Parliament defeated Charles’ army. This will also include the 4 main factors, which were Power; Money; Religion and also King Charles’ personality.

To begin with, some people believe that the worst reason why the Civil War started because of religion. Charles’ reign got off to a bad start, so he decided to marry a French princess catholic called, Henrietta Maria. This was very unpopular with Parliament. The Scots hated the new prayer book and decided to go to rebel against Charles. In the 1630s, King Charles I and Archbishop Laud made some changes to the Church of England. They claimed they tried to make it better, and believed that people would feel closer to God if churches were beautiful and decorated. But they were wrong. The idea made a lot of people annoyed with Charles, especially the Puritans. Henrietta Maria actually had her own chapel and priest, so maybe King Charles I was Catholic. Charles was responsible for it and King Charles was to blame for the cause of the war because of how he tried to change the Church of England.

Secondly, it could be said that Money was a problem for Charles. We know that this was true because Charles had left Parliament and went out by himself, so he had to find a new way of raising money. Charles started wars often and practically lost all of them and this was costing him money. However, he did find a new way of getting money by having a thing called ‘Ship Money’. The money was used to improve the navy ships, but only counties on the coast would pay the ‘Ship Money’. King Charles I in 1634 asked the counties on the coast for the money; however the navy didn’t really need improving! In 1635, the following year, Ship
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